Weekly Online Lending Snapshot – November 10, 2017

Back in July, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced that the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) will be phased out by the end of 2021. Countries and market participants are busy selecting a replacement and making plans for an orderly transition as LIBOR is widely used by financial institutions for everything from setting the interest rate of loans, bonds, and other debt instruments to calculating risk-adjusted returns. This week, Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) released a new Structured Finance research report titled, LIBOR No More – Alternative & Consequences for the ABS Market.

China-based technology companies continue to make headlines this year. WeLab, a consumer and small business lender, announced it has raised a $220 million Series B+ equity and debt financing round. Investors include the Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund, the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Credit Suisse. Hexindai Inc. (NASDAQ: HX) announced it has priced and closed its initial public offering of 5,000,000 American depositary shares (“ADSs”) at US$10 per ADS for a total offering size of approximately US$50.0 million.

Financial software company Intuit announced that is has begun offering business loans directly to customers that are using its Quickbooks platform for bookkeeping. The new lending unit is called Quickbooks Capital.

Last Friday, KBRA upgraded the rating on one class of notes for the SoFi Consumer Loan Program 2015-1 (SCLP 2015-1). Class A was upgraded to AA+(sf). Upstart Securitization Trust 2017-2 (UPST 2017-2), filed form 15G with the SEC.

Note that this report is updated as of Thursday’s market close to ensure we can get it to you before the weekend.